SURGICAL STRIKE: A re-enactment shows how Dr. Jay Yelon might have set tracheotomy patient Enrique Ruiz on fire during a botched April surgery. Photo: ECPI Institute

Dr. Jay Yelon.

Enrique Ruiz.

The chief of surgery at the city’s Lincoln Hospital “set a patient on fire” during an operation, causing severe burns on the man’s neck and chest, The Post has learned.

Dr. Jay Yelon was performing a tracheotomy on April 19 to insert a breathing tube when his electronic scalpel, which gives off tiny sparks, came close to the patient’s oxygen supply, igniting a “minor explosion,” hospital insiders say.

Before the fire was extinguished, unconscious Enrique Ruiz suffered second-degree burns on his neck and chest. He awoke from sedation in searing pain.

Sources at the South Bronx hospital charge a whitewash, saying Yelon failed to mention the patient’s burns in a post-surgery report; he claimed the flames were extinguished with “no danger to the patient.”

“I don’t know anything about it,” Yelon repeatedly told The Post, refusing to answer any questions or acknowledge his role.

Such mishaps that harm patients must be reported immediately to the state Health Department. Spokesman Peter Constantakes first said the Lincoln incident was reported as harmless, but later confirmed, “There was a fire and burns. We’re looking into it.”

In June 2003, the agency issued an alert on electrosurgical fires after two patients suffered second and third-degree burns. It reported five other “flash fires” that had scorched patients when surgical drapes or their hair ignited near an oxygen source. Safety measures were urged.

Nydia Negron, a Lincoln spokeswoman, said Yelon works under a contract with a private group that supplies doctors to city hospitals, Physician Affiliate Group of New York.

Negron said that Ruiz is “expected to fully heal. He received a life-saving emergency procedure.”

Ruiz was admitted to the Lincoln emergency room with pneumonia and bronchitis on April 14.

He underwent the tracheotomy to insert a breathing tube.

“All I can remember is they ripped all my clothes off and that was it. I blanked out,” Ruiz told The Post.

His family was shocked to see the enormous burns.

“What do you mean he caught on fire?” cried his mom, Juanita Viera, 76.

A doctor whose name the family doesn’t know told Ruiz that oxygen “exploded.”

“That happens sometimes. It’s not unusual,” the doctor said, adding it was “like a sunburn.”

“It’s a burn burn!” the brother fumed. “He’s in pain!”

About 500 to 600 surgical fires occur each year nationwide, said Mark Bruley, a leading expert on the hazard. About 25 to 30 suffer severe burns or “gross facial disfigurement,” and several have burned to death, he said.

Bruley, vice-president of investigations for the ECRI Institute, a non-profit that consults on patient safety, could not comment on Ruiz’s cass, but said, “We believe virtually all surgical fires are preventable.”